[Sustain] Los Angeles Times Obama walks a fine line over mining Environmentalists feel betrayed by the EPA's decision not to block new mountaintop mining projects.

[Michael Boyd]

Los Angeles 
Times
Obama walks a fine line over 
mining

Environmentalists feel betrayed by the EPA's 
decision not to block new mountaintop mining projects...Tom Hamburger and Peter 
Wallsten
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mountaintop-mining31-2009may31,0,1484453,print.story
Reporting 
from Washington — With the election of President Obama, environmentalists had 
expected to see the end of the "Appalachian apocalypse," their name for exposing 
coal deposits by blowing the tops off whole mountains.
But in recent weeks, 
the administration has quietly made a decision to open the way for at least two 
dozen more mountaintop removals.
In a letter this month to a coal ally, Rep. 
Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), the Environmental Protection Agency said it would 
not block dozens of "surface mining" projects. The list included some 
controversial mountaintop mines.
The industry says the practice of using 
explosives to blast away a peak is safer and more efficient than traditional 
shaft mining. But critics say the process scars the landscape and dumps tons of 
waste -- some of it toxic -- into streams and valleys.
The administration's 
decision is not the final word on the projects or the future of mountaintop 
removal. But the letter, coupled with the light it sheds on relations between 
the mining industry and the Obama White House, has disappointed 
environmentalists. Some say they feel betrayed by a president they thought would 
end or sharply limit the practice.
The issue is politically sensitive because 
environmentalists were an active force behind Obama's election, and the 
president's standing is tenuous among Democratic voters in coal states. West 
Virginia, for example, voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential 
election largely because Democrat Al Gore was critical of the coal 
industry.
Moreover, Obama needs support from local lawmakers for an energy 
agenda that would further regulate home-state industries, but halting 
mountaintop mining could eliminate jobs and put upward pressure on energy prices 
in a time of economic hardship.
Coal advocates have solicited help from 
officials as high up as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. And the issue 
has sparked contentious debates within the administration, including one 
shouting match in which top officials from two government agencies were heard 
pounding their fists on the table, according to sources briefed on the meeting 
who requested anonymity when discussing White House dealings.
The White House 
is "searching for a way to walk this tightrope," said Phil Smith, a spokesman 
for the United Mine Workers of America. "They have a large constituency of 
people who want to see an immediate end to mountaintop removal, and an equally 
large constituency . . . whose communities depend on those jobs."
Shortly 
after his inauguration, Obama won praise from the green lobby for taking a 
skeptical view of the mining process. And in March the EPA announced it would 
review the mountaintop projects, breaking from the Bush administration's 
practice of granting permits with little or no scrutiny.
The EPA has the 
authority to block mountaintop removal under the Clean Water Act. But if the 
agency raises no objections, the final decision on projects is made by the Army 
Corps of Engineers, which historically has approved mountaintop mining. The 
corps previously had indicated its intention to approve 48 pending 
permits.
Although environmentalists had expected the new administration to 
put the brakes on mountaintop removal, Rahall and other mining advocates have 
pointed out that Obama did not promise to end the practice and was more open to 
it than his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
A review of 
Obama's campaign statements show that he had expressed concern about the 
practice without promising to end it. On a West Virginia visit, when asked about 
the impact of the mining on the state's streams, he said he wanted "strong 
enforcement of the Clean Water Act," adding: "I will make sure the head of the 
Environmental Protection Agency believes in the environment."
And his EPA 
administrator, Lisa Jackson, has said that the agency had "considerable concern 
regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats 
and streams." She pledged that the agency would "use the best science and follow 
the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment."
Soon 
afterward, the agency in effect blocked six major pending mountaintop removal 
projects in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
But this month, after a series 
of White House meetings with coal companies and advocates including Rahall and 
Democratic West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, the EPA released the 
little-noticed letter giving the green light to at least two dozen 
projects.
"It was a big disappointment," said Joan Mulhern, a lawyer for 
Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that has led court challenges to 
mountaintop removal. "It's disturbing and surprising that this administration, 
headed by a president who has expressed concern about mountaintop removal, would 
let such a large number of permits go forward without explanation."
Mulhern 
charged that the EPA "blew off" Jackson's earlier promises that the agency would 
adhere to science and would conduct an open process.
Ed Hopkins, a top Sierra 
Club official, said some of the projects that have now obtained the EPA's 
blessing "are as large and potentially destructive as the ones they objected 
to."
"It makes us wonder what standards -- if any -- the administration is 
using," Hopkins said.
EPA and White House officials say that about 200 
proposed mining projects are under review and that the administration already 
had taken steps to break from Bush-era policies.
"We want to make informed 
decisions guided by science and the law, and a change in such a practice is not 
something that happens overnight," said Christine Glunz, a spokeswoman for the 
White House Council on Environmental Quality.
But after the EPA's initial 
announcement in March that it would conduct aggressive reviews, Manchin and 
Rahall took the coal industry's concerns to White House officials, including 
Emanuel and Nancy Sutley, who heads the Council on Environmental 
Quality.
Manchin said he told the White House that "we are looking for a 
balance between the environment and the economy, and they assured me that they 
will work with us to find that balance."
Environmentalists were stunned to 
learn from Rahall's office May 15 that the EPA had given its blessing to 42 out 
of the 48 mine projects it had reviewed so far -- including two dozen 
mountaintop removals.
The news came in a letter to Rahall from Michael 
Shapiro, the EPA's acting assistant administrator, who wrote, "I understand the 
importance of coal mining in Appalachia for jobs, the economy, and meeting the 
nation's energy needs.
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